This really has been a strange and unsettling time for all of us, and 2020 will go down in history for all of the wrong reasons. Like many others I had to adapt to working from home, in what is now being referred to as the 'new normal'. Personally, I preferred the old normal, and wish that the world had never heard of Coronavirus, Covid19, R values, and daily Coronavirus briefings and home schooling. It seemed that as a country we had only just started to get over Brexit, and leaving the EU, and now we were being faced with a deadly virus that killed people indiscriminately and in great numbers, all across the globe.   

As a family we had only recently decided to relocate from London to East Sussex, and moved in December 2019. Suddenly I found trying to come to terms with a new home in an unfamiliar area, a new job, and a deadly virus and a global Pandemic. Inevitably the stress of it all became to much for me, and I became quite depressed for a couple of months. My collection of cameras was left unused to gather dust, as I had no desire to take any pictures, and did not want to pick up my camera. In between trying to work from home, I found myself drawn to sitting in front of the television watching Sky news, watching the terrible pandemic unfold before my very eyes. Clearly this was not exactly uplifting viewing, and it did not do my mental health a lot of good. As a family with two children, we had to try and master home schooling, as well as home working, which is not easy when you are both Environmental Health Officers for local authorities, whose main job function is to undertake inspections of poor housing and in my wife's case restaurants take aways and care homes. The days became weeks as the relentless lockdown drove the world to the brink of madness, with the only light relief being the Thursday night clap for the NHS and key workers.

Gradually, little by little the situation started to improve, and the sacrifices we all made during the lockdown began to show some positive results. I also started to feel a bit better, and once again began to think about my unused cameras and photography. 

I have always been interested in dog photography, since starting a Facebook page called Barks in the Parks Dog Community. We slowly started to get to know our new neighbours, and their dogs and I decided that it was time to once again pick up a camera and point it at man's best friend. I became hooked once again, and started thinking about new places to photograph dogs. Having relocated to Bexhill on Sea, the beach seemed to be a good starting point. We arranged to meet a friend and her dog Gus, a black miniature schnauzer, and I was able to capture some fun shots of him enjoying the beach.  DSC_5262  

One of our new neighbours is the proud owner of two young Labradors, Bentley and Royce (Bentley below Left, and Royce below right). They are two of the most chilled out dogs I have ever met, and both are therapy dogs at a local hospital. I began to rediscover my enthusiasm for dog photography, and started to share their photographs on facebook once again. During this time I started to think about restarting a website, and decided the easiest option was to contact Zenfolio, as I have previously had one of their websites and I liked their inbuilt blog facility.   

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Coronavirus and the global Pandemic is still hanging around like an unwanted smell, or a house guest who has overstayed their welcome. We are all hoping that there will not be a second wave of Covid 19 cases, as the lockdown is eased further. It has been a huge relief to be able to go out taking pictures once again, without feeling like I'm breaking the law. I truly believe that my mental health would have nose dived without photography acting as my therapist. It's hard to feel depressed when you have two big soppy Labradors sticking their big noses into your camera lens. Let's all hope and pray that this is the beginning of the end of Coronavirus, and that better times are just around the corner for us all.